Cash Relief for DRC Flood Survivors
You can send funds directly to families impacted by devastating floods in eastern DRC.
In early May, heavy rains triggered floods that damaged or destroyed over 1,500 homes and displaced more than 1,100 people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Weeks later, the United Nations had not launched a response to assist impacted families. Floods are often neglected in eastern DRC, as most humanitarian actors focus on conflict-related displacement, even though flooding is both frequent and highly destructive.
We’re delivering cash directly to families in the hardest-hit areas of Uvira. This emergency cash will help cover their immediate needs, such as:
- 🍛 Essentials like food, water, and medicine
- 🏨 Shelter and home repairs
- 👕 Replace belongings lost in the floods
Your donations will reach those in greatest need quickly and remotely.
We’re delivering cash using MobileAid, our technology-enabled approach that uses anonymized mobile phone data to find people in need, enroll them remotely, and deliver cash directly via mobile money.
In Uvira, we’re partnering with Flowminder to analyze mobile network data and identify flood-affected households, then enrolling eligible families via a simple survey on their phones. Cash is delivered directly to recipients’ Airtel mobile money accounts.
Receiving money — without strings attached — supports families’ short-term survival and long-term recovery. Cash aid is fast and fully remote, letting families meet essential needs quickly and reaching them via digital transfers that don’t tax fragile supply chains. This remote approach is especially important in eastern DRC, where ongoing conflict makes it difficult for aid workers to reach communities in-person.
This cash will help hundreds of families meet their own urgent needs and rebuild their lives.
Cash aid allows survivors to meet their own needs rather than having others guess for them — which is why people impacted by a crisis say they prefer cash relief over donated goods.
Achieving our current fundraising goal of $355,000 will enable us to reach about 1,500 families in greatest need. With MobileAid, we have standing capacity to deliver emergency cash to families hit by recurring floods in DRC, so with more funds, we could reach many more people.
This response is part of GiveDirectly’s emergency cash moonshot.
Our moonshot goal is to deliver emergency cash within five days of any crisis, anywhere in the world. That’s radically faster than the weeks or months families typically wait for traditional aid like food shipments. Learn more about our emergency cash moonshot here.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is eligible to receive money?
We will use flood impact and poverty data to identify the highest-need communities in Uvira. Eligible recipients are flood-affected people with an Airtel SIM card, identified through location-based targeting using mobile network data. Families will enroll remotely via a USSD survey.
What if we raise more or less than our fundraising goal?
Any excess funds will help us deliver cash to more impacted families. If for any reason we are unable to deliver all funds to DRC flood survivors, donations will be delivered to survivors of the next emergency through our Emergency Response Fund.
How much will each family receive?
Each family will receive $175 in total, sent in two payments. This is designed to cover roughly one month of household expenses — enough to help families put food on the table, take care of urgent needs, and start repairing or replacing belongings damaged in the floods.
When will people receive my donation?
We launched the response in late May and expect to complete it in the next 4-6 weeks. We are actively delivering emergency cash to families in need.
What is GiveDirectly?
We’re a nonprofit that lets you send money directly to the world’s poorest, no strings attached. In the last decade, we’ve delivered cash to over 2 million people across 15 countries, and we research the impacts it can have for families in need.
What if I’d like to make a major gift?
We’d love to hear from you! Reach out to us at info@givedirectly.org.
Is my donation tax-deductible?
Yes, donations are tax-deductible in the United States. We accept all major credit and debit cards, PayPal, checks, wires, stocks, cryptocurrencies, and more.
If you’re giving outside the U.S., you can still give to this campaign, but your gift may not be tax-deductible. Reach out to us at info@givedirectly.org with any questions or for more information on ways to give.